An estimated 30-thousand visitors are expected to attend this weekend’s Salisbury Festival with rides, booths and entertainment to greet them.

But the events of last Saturday at Cedar Crossing in which around 15-hundred students found themselves sprayed with Mace by police and four arrested has left city officials scrambling to repair the damage done to the relationship between the city and University students.

There will be a stepped up law enforcement presence during the festival by city police, the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Department and the Maryland State police.

Mayor Jim Ireton took the opportunity to urge the community not to be held captive by a small group of students.

Ireton has called for re-energizing the relationship between the city and the University – particularly through Town Gown and the University’s Partners in Progress initiative.

But, he also wanted more information on what sanctions the University would impose on those involved in incidents like last Saturday as well as information about alcohol use – on and off campus – by students.